The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix

Bloody, disturbing, often hilariously well observed, Grady Hendrix’s novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is a tale of darkness stealing into a quiet and reserved community, and how that community responds to the evil in its midst. It’s the early 90s, and in a well-to-do Charleston town Patricia Campbell and her friends meet once a month for their book club, a much-needed slice of time away from husbands, children and never-ending lists of jobs needing doing. When strange goings-on bring charming newcomer James Harris into their orbit, however, the stories they read of gruesome murder and true crime begin to feel worryingly relevant.

James Harris is, of course, a vampire – this is made nice and clear early on. It’s not a story actually about vampires though, not really; Hendrix takes an interesting, modern approach to Harris’ vampirism, but doesn’t attempt to explain exactly what he is, only demonstrating the effect he has. He could, in fact, almost be any kind of menace – serial killer, terrorist, drug dealer – and the book’s impact would be largely unchanged. To Patricia and her book club, and their largely absent, infuriatingly patronising and self-centred husbands, their world is a quiet, safe place revolving around family, work, and keeping up appearances. Patricia’s growing sense of unease takes in a variety of decidedly odd occurrences (no spoilers) but the focus is very much on how they affect the community’s status quo and any supernatural elements are largely inferred.

It’s a wonderful, witty central concept, that a group of gory true crime enthusiasts should be those best placed to see and act upon a danger in their midst, but this is a horror story and as much as anything the horror stems from the characters’ ability to hide their heads in the sand and ignore what’s going on around them…and the repercussions which ensue. For all the darkness it’s largely a quiet family and neighbourhood drama, set to the backdrop of the dry American south and an insular and privileged community in an era still very much affected by gender, race and class inequality. At its heart is Patricia’s desire for something of her own, to find meaning outside of the endless grind of looking after her family and keeping up appearances; James Harris’ arrival finds her at her most vulnerable, and we all know what happens when a vampire is invited over the threshold.

It’s a brilliantly observed book, full of pitch-perfect dialogue and description. There’s a deep joy to be found in the interactions between Patricia and the other members of the book club, especially early on as the dynamic is established and the scene set, while one scene with the full book club and all associated husbands is fist-clenchingly, blood-boilingly infuriating – but beautifully done. Hendrix structures the book with almost episodic pacing, breaking it into sections loosely linked to what the book club is reading, and as it progresses the darkness rises, the humour drops away a little and the psychological elements – Patricia’s spiralling mental state and her role within her family and community – come to the fore. As Hendrix promises in his author’s note things get very bloody indeed, sometimes quite unpleasantly grim, but the story never ceases to be darkly compelling. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but deeply satisfying.

Many thanks to Grady Hendrix and Quirk Books for an advance copy of the book in exchange for this review.

Click here to buy The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, or here for the audiobook edition.